After years in prison and under house arrest and a week holed up in the US embassy, Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng had one English phrase for Hillary Clinton: “I want to kiss you.” The United States had maintained a wall of silence after the activist fled to the US embassy on April 26, but US officials opened up on Wednesday over what they said had become a warm relationship with Chen as they negotiated for his safety. Secretary of State Clinton, in Beijing for long-planned talks, spoke by telephone to the 40-year-old activist as he left the US embassy for a hospital where he received treatment and was reunited with his family. “After saying in Chinese how grateful he was that she had mentioned him in the past and supported his case, he said in broken English, ‘I want to kiss you,’“ a senior US official said on condition of anonymity.
